The Writhing Abomination
There were hundreds—no, thousands of bugs swarming there.
...But are they really bugs?
Thousands of wriggling bugs twisted their bodies independently, maggots boiling disgustingly in between. They merged into a massive humanoid shape, yet each one writhed within it. Even as the humanoid form took a single step, the slime-dripping bugs didn't fall away—they moved as one.
"Ugh, what the hell is that thing?"
Baek Yena clamped a hand over her mouth, fighting back the surge of nausea.
"...That's it. That thing."
Kwon Yooseok, unable to hold out any longer, turned his back on the bugs and muttered. He couldn't think straight amid the horrific sight, but he could guess what the dead hunters had endured.
"Last record. We saw it..."
They'd known from the abandoned chats that something bizarre would happen starting on day four and prepared as best they could. But the previous raid team had faced all those anomalies without any warning. They probably hadn't even thought to search for the boss monster, just tried to deal with whatever was right in front of them. That would've eroded their mental strength even more. For instance, they might've attacked a headless NPC or a flock of crows, mistaking them for monsters.
Seoya had scared off the crows with a mere glare, but without her, they would've had no choice but to fight through. Every attempt to cope with these weird events would've chipped away at their mental fortitude, time would've ticked by, anomalies would've multiplied. Unable to explain them properly, all they could say in their shattered minds was, "Things that shouldn't happen are happening."
At least Baek Yena and Kwon Yooseok had Seoya, letting them head straight for the boss and face it with their mental strength relatively intact.
But if we'd encountered the boss after our mental strength had already hit rock bottom...
Kwon Yooseok recalled the last words of Kim Jeongyeon, one of the BlackPen guild hunters. Desperate phrases scraped together with her final scraps of sanity.
"The difficulty is off."
Baek Yena, whose mental state was better than Kwon Yooseok's—the A-rank hunter—spoke up.
"It's like that feeling I got in the S-rank dungeon. We've never lost mental strength this bad against A-rank monsters. This pressure... it's close to S-rank."
"No way this is A-rank, whoo..."
"Plus, that appearance... I think the visual effect is making it worse than before."
The massive, slime-covered, writhing thing hadn't taken any attack stance yet. It just stared at them, as if probing. But soon, as if finished scouting, it began stepping toward them one foot at a time.
"Skill, Grasping Greed!"
A massive yellow magic circle bloomed beneath it, and a white hand shot up. The hand clamped onto the monster's leg with a sizzling crackle, melting it into goo.
"Skill, Judgment on Evil."
"Skill, Contract with the Wicked!"
Baek Yena and Kwon Yooseok activated skills simultaneously, then realized they'd chosen opposite attributes and hastily redirected them. Their skills slammed into both legs, making the impact sites wobble and collapse.
"Good, it's working."
Their mental strength was taking a huge hit, bodies trembling finely, but they still had some left—and the monster's legs were crumbling.
Seoya watched them fight and prepared her mana. A bad feeling said not to touch it directly, so she'd attack with magic.
Then, as its legs dissolved without any counterattack, its mouth twitched. Bugs pressed tightly together, opening the maw—and a voice emerged.
Everyone screamed.
"Hic, ah..."
"Aaaah!"
A sound no human could describe, one never heard before—and never should be. Kwon Yooseok and Baek Yena clutched their heads and collapsed. Seoya started gasping for air too.
"Hah, hah..."
She hadn't taken as much damage, but the world spun. Clutching her blue mana tightly, she panted. End it quick... quick...
This feeling is so weird.
Her blue mana shot toward its torso—faster and stronger than ever. It slammed into the heart area with a hiss, flinging bugs into the air.
It twisted wildly, melting gooily, then opened its mouth again.
"Ah, ah..."
Unlike Baek Yena and Kwon Yooseok, who plugged their ears, Seoya stared it down from point-blank range and heard it fully.
What the hell is this?
Is this what mental drain felt like? A horrific chill wracked her body, limbs shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't even step back to flee—her arms flailed like a ragdoll's, ears ringing with tinnitus. Her head throbbed, burning pain stabbing her forehead.
In her mind, Ibin's warm gaze at child-Seoya flashed, then Na Seonghyeon's near-mad loyalty, Ji Sein lounging on the sofa watching TV, Earth's towering apartments—all burned to ash, over and over.
How do I beat this?
Though her body wouldn't obey, her mind began to clear—just barely. Random thoughts still swirled, but she fought to reclaim them.
I might die...
Her wrecked mind spiraled into negativity. Instinctively, she wrapped mana around her body. In this loss of control, she'd at least regained command of her mana.
Her white-blinded vision cleared. The scene sharpened.
Behind her, Baek Yena plugged her ears on the ground, gasping—now trying to smash her head into the dirt. Farther off, Kwon Yooseok did the same, stumbling up repeatedly in a bizarre gait. And the thing—legs gone, pinned by the magic circle—craned its neck, shoving its head right at Seoya.
"Kyaaah!"
The shock snapped sensation back. Seoya reeled away, then smashed its head with mana. It split in two.
Seoya gasped, muttering, "Did... did that do it...?"
But from the split skull, the voice leaked again.
"Gasp, ugh, ah, kyaaah!"
Uncontrollable screams tore from her throat, body moving on its own again, vision whitening completely. In total blindness, Seoya thought of death.
Am I dying like this?
Unable to return to Toda, dying on Earth? As despondent Seoya staggered blindly, sensation returned briefly to her throat amid the screams.
Her mind still fractured, she muttered words she didn't know were for.
"Why are you doing this?"
The higher world, sending mutants to ruin Toda, now unleashing monsters Earthlings couldn't handle to destroy it too.
"What's the point?"
A pleading tone escaped her throat.
"Just stop already!"
Seoya cried out desperately for it all to end. Amid endless agony, she felt a strange sensation.
"Ah."
Above her, far in the distant heights, something descended toward her.
The sky? No, not exactly the sky... more like something even higher...
She couldn't tell if it came from the sky, but one thing was clear: from that "high place," something was coming for her.
The higher world...
But her body was too wrecked by the monster to move.
Can't dodge...
Seoya sensed she couldn't evade it and squeezed her eyes shut.
And...
Huh?
A warm energy enveloped her, limbs going languidly limp. An unprecedented comfort pressed gently on her forehead; another soft warmth cradled her back.
What is this? A higher world being's energy? It doesn't feel harmful... but why would one intervene now?
Questions swirled.
As the warmth faded, Seoya opened her eyes.
"Ah."
Everything was back to normal. Her unruly body, dysfunctional eyes, choking throat—all restored.
Most striking: she was eerily calm. Even with the grotesque monster writhing before her, her mind stood firm, unshaken.
A baseless confidence surged: Right now, I could one-shot this thing.
"What the hell was that?"
Staring down the monster, her unnatural calm screamed outside help.
"Did you... help me? Who? Why?"
What was that sensation from "above," descending to save her and vanishing?